Thursday, August 03, 2006

What's the real federal deficit?

USA Today says, according to an audited financial statement produced by the government's own accountants, it's more than twice as much as the official $318 billion figure--$760 billion. That's not including Social Security & Medicare--it's mostly because of the cost of federal employee pensions& retiree benefits.

Am I a dork because I think an article discussing& simplifying federal budgets and accounting methods is really cool?

1 comment:

No, Anna, you're not a dork. All of us (Gen Xers) need to be more savvy about the deficit and the national debt, what it means, and the potentially serious consequences for us down the road.

The Boomers are abandoning us to our fate by failing to address this issue in a timely manner. They'll wrangle over flag burning or leaks over CIA agents and not tackle the real issues. Plus, the feds have been lying to us about what the REAL deficit has been for years. If the people knew (and cared) what was off-book, there might be armed insurrection. But, maybe that's just wishful thinking.